Bob Bogle- The Ventures

R.I.P Bob Bogle - You changed the way a guitar could be played and heard. Godspeed..

Backstage Auctions to Put 5,000 7-inch Vintage Promotional Records On the Auction Block

Press release distributed in partnership with



Backstage Auctions to feature over 700 auction lots of rock and roll treasures from the personal collection of noted classic rock radio legend Denny Somach. The Rockin' Hot Summer Auction will feature one-of-a-kind items from rock history's most iconic bands and personalities including The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, The Band, YES, The Who, The Doors, B.B. King, The Kinks and many more.



Houston, TX (Billboard Publicity Wire/PRWEB ) June 16, 2009 -- Backstage Auctions, Inc., the online boutique auction house specializing in authentic classic rock memorabilia, is hopping on the vinyl bandwagon. With both baby boomers and teens attracted by the sound of vinyl records and record stores promoting monthly Vinyl Saturdays (June 20 is the next one), Backstage Auctions is putting up one of the largest collections of 7-inch promotional vinyl singles in their The Rockin' Hot Summer Auction, June 21-28 at http://backstageauctions.com.

Featuring items from the personal collection of radio/TV industry veteran Denny Somach spanning his 40-year career, The Rockin' Hot Summer Auction features a collection of over 5,000 7-inch vinyl promotional singles up for bidding and Backstage Auctions is expecting a big response from the collecting public. What makes 45 rpm singles so interesting is not only the artwork used on the sleeves but many contain rare B-sides with songs that were never released on an album. "Clearly the allure of vinyl is gaining mainstream popularity again with the resurgence of vinyl records being produced and released, evidenced by Record Store Day's new monthly Vinyl Saturday events, " says Jacques van Gool, of Backstage Auctions.

Somach's collection of vinyl records covers all music genres which defined the 1970s, including classic rock, British rock, progressive rock, hard rock, punk and new wave, disco, R&B and soul, country and western, pop, blues, jazz, folk and reggae. Records on the auction block include singles from The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, David Bowie, KISS, Fleetwood Mac, Journey and many more. "As an auctioneer who works exclusively with music industry professionals, we have seen some amazing vinyl collections come through our doors, but this particular 7- inch collection is one of the most unique and rare collections simply because 90% of the singles are promotional and radio-station-only releases," says van Gool.

Somach will donate a portion of the auction proceeds to the American Diabetes Association.

Every lot in The Rockin' Hot Summer Auction can be viewed online June 14-20 at http://backstageauctions.com. Bidding starts on June 21-28.

Backstage Auctions is a boutique online auction house specializing in authentic classic rock memorabilia. By exclusively representing legendary musicians and entertainment professionals directly, every auction event is unique and reflects the seller's legacy and chronicles their legendary career. Over the past five years Backstage Auctions has represented musicians, producers and managers in the music industry. Their very first online auction event featured the private collection of legendary producer Eddie Kramer and since then, they have represented musicians such as Ted Nugent, Howard Kaylan (The Turtles), Ross Valory (Journey) and Michael Shrieve (Santana) as well as managers of legendary bands such as The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, KISS, Journey, Joe Walsh and Motley Crue. Backstage Auctions works closely with each of their clients and incorporates their personal stories and memories throughout the online auction event. The end result is a unique, historical and unforgettable journey spanning decades of music history.

Denny Somach is a Grammy® Award recipient, author and producer for radio and television. Somach is considered one of the founders of the format known as Classic Rock, which he helped to create at WYSP, the premier rock radio station in Philadelphia. He was also instrumental in developing NBC's rock radio network, The Source. Somach formed Denny Somach Productions (DSP) which has become one of the most successful independent producers of syndicated and network radio programming in the country, including Legends of Rock and Live from the Hard Rock Cafe for NBC; Rolling Stone Magazine's Continuous History of Rock and Roll for ABC; the Psychedelic Psnack for Westwood One and Scott Muni's Ticket to Ride. Somach also produced "Meet the Beatles...Again" hosted by Pat O'Brien, which won the 2005 Crystal Radio Award and Clapton - The Autobiography, the official radio program for Eric Clapton's best selling book.

Somach has also been involved with numerous television productions. He served as a producer and reporter for Evening/PM Magazine, produced The Rock and Roll Show for CBS, The News That Rocked for MTV, the weekly concert series, Hot Spots, on the USA Network and he is the co-creator of Friday Night Videos for NBC. A recognized rock and roll authority, Somach has appeared on numerous television shows, including: The Today Show, Larry King Live, The Early Show on CBS, The Joan Rivers Show, Dateline NBC, CNN's Moneyline, and other programs. He is also the author of Ticket to Ride (Wm Morrow & Co. 1989) and Meet the Beatles…Again (1995.)

From 1994 - 1998, Denny was the executive VP of EMI Merchandising where he created and executed the merchandising for the Beatles "Live at the BBC" and "Anthology" releases. He also initiated and conducted high end merchandising for three Rolling Stones worldwide tours.

Currently, Denny Somach produces the weekly Led Zeppelin tribute program; Get the Led Out with Carol Miller. The radio program airs on over 100 stations throughout the country including WAXQ, New York, the highest rated classic rock station in the U.S.

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Classic Rock Videos

Alice Cooper - I'm Eighteen

New Releases- June 16, 2009

311: Uplifter
Acid Mothers Temple: Are We Experimental
Alice Cooper: School's Out (remastered vinyl)
Amadou & Mariam: Welcome To Mali (2-LP vinyl with CD)
Antenna Shoes: Generous Gambler
Baaba Maal: Television
Beck: One Foot in the Grave (2-LP remastered vinyl) Buy It Here
Blind Pilot: 3 Rounds and a Sound
Boris Skalsky: First Songs EP
Brasstronaut: Old World Lies EP
Brokencyde – I’m Not a Fan But the Kids Like It
Bruce Springsteen: Greatest Hits Buy Bruce Springsteen Music
Captain Beefheart: Jukebox
Cass McCombs: Catacombs
Catherine MacLellan: Water in the Ground
Cocteau Twins: Garlands (remastered vinyl)
Crosby Stills & Nash: Demos
Dave Matthews Band: Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King (2-CD & DVD box set) (2-LP vinyl) Buy Dave Matthews Band
Deastro: Moondagger
Diane Birch: Bible Belt
The Doors: The Soft Parade (remastered)
EELS: Hombre Lobo: 12 Songs of Desire
Elvis Costello: Secret, Profane and Sugarcane
Emery: ... In Shallow Seas We Sail
Faces: A Nod Is as Good as a Wink...to a Blind Horse (vinyl reissue)
Franz Ferdinand: Blood (vinyl)
George Harrison – Let It Roll: The Songs of George Harrison
Girl in a Coma: Trio B.C. (vinyl)
Great White: Great Zeppelin: A Tribute to Led Zeppelin (vinyl reissue)
Green Day - vinyl reissues (LP)
Hank Williams Jr. – 127 Rose Avenue
Hoots and Hellmouth: The Holy Open Secret
Iggy Pop: Preliminaires
Incubus – Monuments and Melodies
J-Dilla: Jay $tay Paid
Jeff Buckley: Grace - Around the World (CD & DVD) (CD & 2-DVDs)
Jonas Brothers – Lines, Vines and Trying Times
Juicy J – Hustle Till I Die
Linkin Park – New Divide [Single]
Lydia Lunch: Queen of Siam
Marshall Crenshaw: Jaggedland
Michael Buble – Michael Buble Meets Madison Square Garden
Miles Davis: Milestones (vinyl reissue)
Neil Young: Neil Young Archives, Vol. 1: 1963-1972 (8-CD box set) (10-disc DVD box set) (10-disc Blu-ray box set) Buy Neil Young
New Riders Of The Purple Sage: Where I Come From
New York Dolls: 'Cause I Sez So (vinyl)
Noisettes: Noisettes
Oasis: And It's a Good Night from Him (dvd)
Paolo Nutini: Sunny Side Up
Patrick Watson: Wooden Arms (vinyl)
Patrick Wolf: The Bachelor
Patti Smith: Classic Interviews
Pet Shop Boys: Did You See Me Coming? Pt.1
Pet Shop Boys: Did You See Me Coming? Pt.2
Pink Floyd: A Momentary Lapse of Reason (reissue)
Pink Martini: Discover the World: Live in Concert (dvd)
Prefuse 73: Forest of Oversensitivity
Rancid: Let the Dominoes Fall (3-disc box set)
Ray Charles: Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music, Vol. 1 & 2 (remastered)
Red Hot Chili Peppers - vinyl reissues (LP)
Rodney Crowell: The Rodney Crowell Collection (reissue)
Ryan Bingham: Roadhouse Sun
Scott Matthew: Scott Matthew (vinyl)
Simple Minds: Graffiti Soul
So Many Dynamos: Loud Wars

Spinal Tap — Back From the Dead
The Sounds: Crossing the Rubicon (vinyl)
Steven Wright: I Have a Pony (CD & DVD)
Taking Back Sunday: New Again (CD & DVD)
Thea Gilmore: Recorded Delivery
Umphrey's McGee: Soundstage Presents (dvd)
Various Artists: Music from the Original Soundtrack and More: Woodstock (remastered)
Various Artists: Theme Time Radio Hour: With Your Host Bob Dylan
Various Artists: Woodstock Two (remastered)
Wallflowers - Collection
The Who: The Who Sell Out (Deluxe Edition) (remastered with bonus tracks)
Willy Porter: How to Rob a Bank
Zeus: Sounds Like Zeus

Audio News

Audiophile Audition ReviewI want to thank John over at http://www.audaud.com/index.php for the exclusive rights to reprint this great review!



AUDIOPHILE AUDITION focuses on recordings of interest to audiophiles and collectors, with an accent on surround sound for music, and on all hi-res disc formats. Over 100SACD, DVD Video/Audio and standard CD reviews are published during each month, and our archives go back to January 2001.


Audio News for June 9, 2009

Napster’s Impact on Music Distribution; Studio Tips on Improving Quality of Data-Reduced Audio Files; Neil Young Blu-ray Package Gets Thumbs Down; Acurus and Aragon Lines Are Back


Napster’s Impact on Music Distribution - Ten years ago Napster was first released and had sweeping effects on the entire music industry. It came at exactly the right time, when people were beginning to switch from snail-paced dialup to broadband connections, which allowed them to download music in a short period of time. Of course the program and the peer-to-peer revolution it started infringed on copyright and licensing laws - which is how it was reduced down to its present shell of itself. In a way, Napster led the way to iTunes, which is really a legal version without the peer-to-peer sharing. And iTunes has certainly made digital music downloading a success, at least in the pop music area. The whole system of how music is distributed has radically changed. Napster also made MP3 files catch on with the general public, and launched the preference for convenience (and often free or lower cost) in spite of compromised sound over standard CD quality, let alone hi-res formats. Now, however, lossless codecs such as FLAC are becoming more popular, and download sites such as HDtracks are offering hi-res downloads that surpass 44.1K CDs, though so far hi-res surround has not made much headway.


Studio Tips on Improving Quality of Data-Reduced Audio Files - Nashville studio engineers advise recording artists and producers to boost the quality of their recordings by mixing two separate masters - one for hi-res and CD and another for MP3 and other such codecs. Data compression typically throws out more than 90% of the original music information, yet has become the standard for digital music distribution. Some of the suggestions are to encode at the highest possible resolution. For example, a 320 kbps file still has over 22% of the original audio data, while the popular 128 kbps files have less than 8%. The best-sounding algorithm should be used after testing the material with different ones. It is even suggested that mono MP3 files are often a solution since they have twice as much musical data as the stereo files and therefore can sound better. The other major destroyer of pop digital music today is compression and peak-limiting of dynamic levels. it is suggested to apply the digital encoding prior to peak limiting to maximize as much of the dynamic details as possible.


Neil Young Blu-ray Package Gets Thumbs Down - Singer Neil Young is quite an audiophile and promoted his new Neil Young Archives, Vol. 1 1963-1972 Blu-ray box (SRP: $349) as the last word in remastered hi-res sonics of his old recordings. It comes with a specially-bound embossed “leather” book and 11 discs, of which only one is of previously unreleased material and only one is in surround. There is a VHS-quality film “Journey Thru the Past,” and the rest of the two-channel Blu-rays - which show visually only an LP spinning on a turntable or tape reels revolving - are 192K/24bit. Even if your components can pass that hi-res signal, they don’t sound any better than the DVDs and CDs released before, and the Blu-ray navigation is frustrating according to reviews.


Acurus and Aragon Lines Are Back - After four years of inactivity two well-regarded lines of high end audio electronics are back in the marketplace. Klipsch had owned Aragon and Acurus amps, preamps and processors since 2001 and has now sold them to two Klipsch electronics engineers, Rick Santiago and Ted Moore, since deciding to concentrate their efforts entirely on their loudspeaker lines. The new owners intend to announce a new line of products in early 2010. Their amps will feature the use of class A at lower signal levels and a gradual shift to class A-B at higher levels, with ratings between 125 watts per channel and 400wpc. Acurus will be the entry-level line and Aragon the higher-priced series. The lines were originally founded by Tony Federici and Paul Rosenberg, with Mondial as the parent company.


Copyright 2003-2009 Audiophile Audition
Reprinted By Permission

Vinyl In The News

After the success of Record Store Day in April, local record stores will now feature “Vinyl Saturdays” once a month. It's described as a “new monthly unveiling of limited special vinyl pieces, [and] an irresistible lure to your local indie record store, where treasures of all sorts are glittering on the shelves.”

The first Vinyl Saturday kicks off this Saturday, June 20, and features new releases (available exclusively on vinyl for now) from several major artists. Available this week is a batch of 7-inch vinyl singles: Wilco’s “You Never Know” and “Unlikely Japan;” Green Day’s “Know Your Enemy” and “Hearts Collide;” Scarlett Johansson and Pete Yorn’s “Relator” and “I Don’t Know What To Do;” and Modest Mouse’s “Autumn Beds” and “Whale Song.”

This is great news for the world of vinyl, the musician's support to this and other vinyl related promotions have been an overwhelming success. Hail Vinyl!

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Music Reports

The National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM) has released a report in association with Nielsen SoundScan on the current state of the recording industry.

Highlights from the report:

•Digital music is now 40% of the total music purchases compared to just 8% in 2005. It is projected that it will hit 50% by the end of 2010.

•Purchases are being made less at mass and chain/electronic stores and more at value oriented outlets (dollar, mass merchandisers, clubs) and on-line. Between 2001 and 2009, chains like Best Buy's share of the market has gone from 54% to 32%, independent music stores from 14% to 7%, mass merchandisers like Wal-Mart from 28% to 33% and non-traditional sources such as iTunes, Amazon and Starbucks from 3% to 29%.

•In 2008, the biggest percentage jump in sales was for vinyl albums, which were up 89% over 2007. The biggest drop was in current CD albums (compared to catalog) whic was down 23%.

•Since 2004, CD sales are down 45% while digital sales are up 490% and video game sales up 115%.

•Between 2006 and 2008, rap music had the biggest drop in album sales, dropping 44% with country down 36% and R&B down 34%. On the other end of the scale, rock and hard rock are only down 18%.

•Digital music buying was done most by fans of rock music, with 41% of all purchases coming from an on-line source. That's compared to only 6% of sales for country albums.

•New physical formats are not doing well. Slot Music sales are averaging 1,500 albums per week while digital album cards are only moving 590 albums. Both formats are seriously declining.

•Through the first five months of this year, rock and alternative vinyl album sales have led the way, growing between 60% and 70% from last year. The real genre gains, percentage wise, has been in country and gospel where sales are up 200% from a year ago.




Vinyl Top Sellers for 2008

During 2008 there were just under 13,000 different LP's that sold at least one unit

There were nearly 400 LP's that sold 1,000 or more copies and this accounted for 50% of all vinyl sales in 2008

The top 10 artists based on LP sales sold 225,000 vinyl albums in 2008- 13% of all LP sales for the year

Vinyl Top Sellers - 2008

Radiohead - 61,200
Metallica - 39,500
Beatles - 20,400
Elliott Smith - 17,800
Bob Dylan - 15,200
Portishead - 15,100
Ryan Adams - 14,000
Coldplay - 13,900
Guns N Roses - 13,600
Neutral Milk Hotel - 13,200

Keyboardist Kooper Almost A Rolling Stone

Al Kooper told the British magazine Word that he had a little voice inside his head not to join the Rolling Stones. He was offered Mick Taylor's spot back in 1974 by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards but he turned it down over fear of the band's reputation.

"I had this flash that said, 'Don't do it, you'll never get on with Mick and Keith musically because you're heading in a different direction'. There's the thing. There's the crossroads. If I'd turned left I'd have been a multi-millionaire Rolling Stone...and dead."

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Supergrass members form band with Radiohead producer

Supergrass' Gaz Coombes and Danny Goffey have joined forces with Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich for a new side-project.

The trio are working on a covers album and record under the moniker The Hot Rats. They are working on songs by The Kinks, Gang Of Four, Syd Barrett, Roxy Music and the Sex Pistols.

The Hot Rats plan to release their debut album in the autumn.

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Bloc Party to release all-new single in August

'One More Chance' doesn't appear on any previous albums

Bloc Party are set to release a new single unavailable on any formats before on August 10.

Non-album track 'One More Chance' was recorded with producer Jacknife Lee, who produced the band's latest album, 2008's 'Intimacy', alongside Paul Epworth, and was mixed by Phillipe Zdar of Cassius.

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Charlatans ponder special debut album gig

Tim Burgess wants to play 'Some Friendly' in its entirety

The Charlatans have revealed that they're considering playing a special gig to mark the 20th anniversary of their 1990 debut album 'Some Friendly'.

The band are hoping to play the album in its entirety providing singer Tim Burgess can persuade his bandmates.

He told Absolute Radio: "We are thinking about that [playing the album live]. It's kind of up in the air at the moment.

"Not everyone in the band wants to do it, it's very rarely that we all agree on everything."

The band are also lining up a special 20th anniversary edition of their debut - although they are yet to announce release details.

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Santigold starts work on new album with Pharrell Williams

Singer hits the studio for new effort

Santigold has started work on the follow-up to her 2008 self-titled debut album with producer Pharrell Williams.

The singer told NYLON that she had enlisted Williams as well as Diplo and Switch, who worked on her debut, and rap/dance outfit Spank Rock on production duties on the album.